A Distributed File Services (DFS) junction is a virtual file directory that serves as a placeholder for a directory and its contents that the system administrator relocated to another storage volume in the network. The DFS junction serves as a symbolic link, or shortcut, between the old location of data and the new location of data.
The DFS junction looks just like a regular directory in your browser window. If you open the directory, the file system information displays normally, but the file structure and the data it contains actually reside in another physical storage volume. However, if you open the directory's Properties dialog, the browser displays the properties of the DFS junction, not the destination directory.
If you are having problems accessing data in this directory, it is most likely because there is a server outage in the destination location. Report this problem to your system administrator. Be ready to provide information that is displayed on the DFS Junction Information tab in the Properties dialog:
DFS Junction Name
The junction name of the selected directory appears at the top of the Properties dialog. For example: jncs1data.DFS Junction Path
The physical path to the selected DFS junction identified at the top of the Properties dialog.Typically, the path where you think you are is not the same as the path displayed here. That is because you might have traversed any number of DFS junctions to get to the junction's physical storage location.
By default, the Novell® Client tells your directory browser to display path information in Novell Directory Service® (NDS) dot format. If the NDS dot format is enabled, the DFS junction path shows the NDS common name. For example:
\\servertree\servername_volumename.servercontext
If the NDS dot format is disabled, the directory browser displays the path information in the slash-separated path format, typical of Windows* Explorer browsers. For example:
\\servertree\servercontext\servername\volumename
DFS Junction Target
The physical path to the destination volume where the DFS junction is pointing. This is the physical location of the new volume where the administrator moved the old directory and its contents when the DFS junction was created.The DFS Junction Target path shows the IP address of the destination server and the volume name. For example: \\192.168.1.1\newvolumename
What Is a DFS Junction?
With Novell® NetWare 6.0 and later, the system administrator can redistribute the physical location of user data without making the relocation apparent to the end users of the data. To do this, the administrator creates a DFS junction to serve as a placeholder for that directory and its contents. This might involve any directory level of the file system structure, from the volume's root directory to its most distant subdirectory. Everything below the specified directory, including its subdirectories and the data therein, moves from the original location to a new volume in the network.
Whenever a user sends a request for data in that file system, NetWare recognizes the junction, looks up the directory's new location, then redirects the request along that path. From a user's perspective, the path to the data remains constant; the redirection happens without action by or awareness of the user. The access rights the user has on the data in the directory still apply even though the data is now stored on the new volume.
For the user, the junction seems to be just another subdirectory displayed in the directory browser. However, users are unable to create or manipulate these junctions.
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